Pope Agapetus I was the bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 to his death. His father, Gordianus, was a priest in Rome and he may have been related to two popes, Felix III and Gregory I.
Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, is a mosque and a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in 537 AD. The site was an Eastern Orthodox church from 360 AD to 1204, when it was converted to a Catholic church following the Fourth Crusade. It was reclaimed in 1261 and remained Eastern Orthodox until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
Myra was a Lycian, then ancient Greek, then Greco-Roman, then Byzantine Greek, then Ottoman town in Lycia, which became the small Turkish town of Kale, renamed Demre in 2005, in the present-day Antalya Province of Turkey. In 1923, its Greek inhabitants had been required to leave by the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, at which time its church was finally abandoned. It was founded on the river Myros, in the fertile alluvial plain between Alaca Dağ, the Massikytos range and the Aegean Sea.
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name to the architectural form of the basilica.
Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor during the time of the Roman Empire. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe. His reputation evolved among the pious, as was common for early Christian saints, and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through Sinterklaas.
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world.
The Church of Cyprus is one of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox churches that together with other Eastern Orthodox churches form the communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is one of the oldest Eastern Orthodox autocephalous churches; it claims to have always been independent, although it may have been subject to the Church of Antioch before its autocephaly was recognized in 431 at the Council of Ephesus. The bishop of the ancient capital, Salamis was constituted metropolitan by Emperor Zeno, with the title archbishop.
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. There was initially no hard line between the Byzantine and Roman Empires, and early Byzantine architecture is stylistically and structurally indistinguishable from late Roman architecture. The style continued to be based on arches, vaults and domes, often on a large scale. Wall mosaics with gold backgrounds became standard for the grandest buildings, with frescos a cheaper alternative.
A cathedra is the raised throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term cathedral became synonymous with the "seat", or principal church, of a bishopric.
The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin is a minor basilican church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is located in the rione (neighborhood) of Ripa. Constructed first in the sixth century as a diaconia (deaconry) in an area of the city populated by Greek immigrants, it celebrated Eastern rites and currently serves the Melkite Greek Catholic community of Rome. The church was expanded in the eighth century and renovated in the twelfth century, when a campanile was added. A Baroque facade and interior refurbishment of 1718 were removed in 1894-99; the exterior was restored to twelfth-century form, while the architecture of the interior recalls the eighth century with twelfth-century furnishings. The narthex of the church contains the famous Bocca della Verità sculpture.
The Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo is a basilica church in Ravenna, Italy. It was erected by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great as his palace chapel during the first quarter of the 6th century. This Arian church was originally dedicated in 504 AD to "Christ the Redeemer".
Hagia Irene or Hagia Eirene, sometimes known also as Saint Irene, is an Eastern Orthodox church located in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. It is the oldest known church in the city and the only Byzantine church in Istanbul that was never converted into a mosque, as it was used as an arsenal for storing weapons until the 19th century. The Hagia Irene today operates as a museum and concert hall.
Demre is a municipality and district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 329 km2, and its population is 27,691 (2022). It was named after the river Demre.
The Pontifical Basilica of Saint Nicholas is a church in Bari, Southern Italy that holds wide religious significance throughout Europe and the Christian world. The basilica is an important pilgrimage destination both for Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Hagia Sophia in İznik (Nicaea) in Bursa Province, Turkey, was built as a Byzantine-era basilican church. Converted into the Orhan Mosque after the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a museum in 1935. The church is now once again in service as a mosque. It is in the town centre of İznik, within the old walled area.
Saint Nicholai's icon labels the light house at the tip of the outskirt pier of the Port of Varna. Saint Nicholai is patron saint of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing. In centuries of Greek folklore, Nicholas was seen as "The Lord of the Sea", often described by modern Greek scholars as a kind of Christianised version of Poseidon.
The Monastery of Saint John the Theologian is a Greek Orthodox monastery founded in 1088 in Chora on the island of Patmos. It is named after St. John of Patmos, the author of the Christian Book of Revelation who, according to the text, lived on the island when visions of the apocalypse came to him. Since its founding, the monastery has been a pilgrimage site and a place of Greek Orthodox learning and worship. The monastery is unique in that it integrated from its founding the surrounding community of Chora, which was built around its fortifications. Religious ceremonies that date back to the early Christian period are still practiced within the monastery today. Because of its sacred significance, uninterrupted architectural evolution, and the exceptional preservation of early Christian customs, the monastery was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, along with the town of Chora and the nearby Cave of the Apocalypse.
The Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari is a religious and folk holiday among the East Slavs and, to a lesser extent, the South Slavs and Eastern Romance peoples. It is celebrated on May 9 each year. For Old (Julian) Calendar churches, May 9 falls on May 22 of the New (Gregorian) Calendar. The feast commemorates the translation (movement) of the relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari, on the Italian Peninsula. To this day, the relics remain at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas.
